Afghan President Hamid Karzai told hundreds of Afghan and Pakistan tribal leaders on Thursday that both nations could defeat a resurgent al Qaeda and Taliban if they worked together.

Karzai’s remarks came as he opened three days of talks on rising Islamist extremism in the absence of his Pakistani counterpart Pervez Musharraf, who abruptly pulled out of the meeting.

With 700 delegates and elders on hand from tribal areas straddling the rugged border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan — an area said to be rife with militants — he said the two nations shared a common destiny.

“I am confident, I believe... if both Afghanistan and Pakistan put their hands together, we will eliminate in one day the oppression against both nations,” he said in his opening address at the so-called peace jirga.

“If the problem is from the Afghanistan side, we should seek ways to solve it. If the problem is in Pakistan, we should find solutions for it,” he said in Kabul, where thousands of police and soldiers were on patrol for the meeting.“Our future and our destiny is intertwined,” Karzai said. Along with elements from al Qaeda, the Taliban have been able to regroup since being ousted from power in Kabul by the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001.

Karzai and Musharraf have traded recriminations about the root of the unrest, while the Pakistani leader has been angered by US accusations that his government is not doing enough to counter the militant threat.

Musharraf is a notable absentee from the talks, having abruptly pulled out on Wednesday citing an engagement in Islamabad, ostensibly to deal with rising domestic insecurity.